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At this rate, Taly would be old and gray before she ever got to go home. Although, as a fey, she supposed she would neither look old nor gray even when she was thousands of years old. This new body would never age, never change despite a countless number of mortal lifetimes passing.

Considering the circumstances, that didn’t make her feel better.

A door groaned and snicked shut.

Metal clinked, and Taly’s stomach gave an embarrassingly loud growl as the scent of food drifted into the darkened study.

“Mistress?”

“I’m up,” Taly called, already moving from her study to the library and through the bedroom, towards the dining room on the other side. Her prison cell was spacious. At least she had that going for her. “And for the last time, Leto—it’s not My Lady, or Madam, or even Mistress. It’s Taly.JustTaly.”

Leto hovered in front of a small round table already laden with food. Eggs, bacon, batter cakes, even porridge—it would all be delicious and perfectly prepared by the fairies that haunted the kitchen. Since spirits didn’t eat, Taly wondered just how they still managed to get the taste right.

“Of course,” Leto conceded, ripples of star-kissed mist swirling around her ethereal form. She pulled out a chair. “If it pleases you—Ma’am.”

Taly sighed and dropped into the chair, not sure why she still bothered. There were more books and more papers stacked beside her plate—all first seal literature. Some of them repeats of things she’d already received. It seemed the Queen couldn’t even bother now to check the things she was sending. “Is this how it’s going to be, Leto?” she asked, picking up a paperback journal from the top of the stack. There were two identical copies sitting on her study desk. “I get shoved into a room with no one to talk to and a bunch of books I’ve already read—is that really the Queen’s idea of training?”

“Everyone starts with the basics, Ma’am.”

“I know my basics. Something I would gladly tell Her Royal Pain-in-my-ass if she ever deigned to talk to me. Why is she wasting my time, Leto?”

“All initiates—” Leto began.

“Don’t,” Taly snapped. “Don’t give me another bullshit excuse. I’ve known enough fey to understand just how much they like fucking with those they see as smaller and weaker, so for the love of the Shards, just tell me what the hell is going on. What kind of game is she playing? Why keep me here under the guise of training if she’s not going totrainme?”

“I cannot say, Ma’am.” She never could. Leto did work for the Queen, after all.

With a sigh, Taly reached for the cup of coffee steaming beside her plate. It was bitter and strong, too harsh for a fey palate. But she drank it anyway. There were some things from her human life she simply wasn’t willing to give up.

Leto was already preparing to go. She never stayed for very long. “Is there anything you would like me to tell the Queen today? I would be happy to relay another message.”

Taly took the smallest sip of coffee she could manage, wincing at the taste. “No,” she said after a moment. She’d already tried sending messages and notes. They never did a damned thing.

Two more days passed.

Taly ate her meals alone.

She went to sleep alone.

She woke up screaming and sobbing Skye’s name in the dark alone.

Leto continued to deliver the same books and papers with every meal.

On and on, each day was exactly the same, until one morning, Leto arrived with no more books and no more papers.

But instead a formal summons from the Queen.

Taly huffed as she paced around the spacious study for what seemed like the hundredth time. After Leto had shown her to the room where her lessons were to be held, she’d been left to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

With nothing else to do, she’d already completed the test booklet she’d found on a longtable. What she assumed was her first seal examination.

She’d even had time to go back and check her answers.

Twice.